The Oakland A’s went into this week’s matchup against the Texas Rangers with an opportunity to put a little bit of distance between themselves and the rest of their division.  The Rangers had other plans in mind and have left Oakland with a 0.5 game lead over the A’s in the AL West after sweeping their division rival. 

Rocky bullpen performances cost the A’s the first two games of the series, while SP Martin Perez dominated earlier today to finish off the sweep.  Here is a brief recap of each game.  

Game 1 final score: Rangers 4, Athletics 3

SP Dan Straily matched wits with Yu Darvish for five innings leaving the game with the scored tied at three runs apiece.  After their three run 2nd inning, the A’s offense went silent against Darvish, struggling to capitalize time and time again – the A’s left 11 men on base for the game, with several opportunities to knock Darvish out of the game in the early half of the game but were never able to come through. 

RP Sean Doolittle struggled in the 8th inning, giving up 2 hits and an earned run, which wound up being all the Rangers and RP Joakim Soria needed to wrap up the Rangers victory to open the series. 

Game 2 final score: Rangers 5, Athletics 4

The Rangers and A’s traded early punches, each scoring twice in the 1st inning.  The A’s gave up one run in the 3rd inning, trading the run for a double play.  In the bottom of the 4th inning they struck back with RBI hits from Eric Sogard and Coco Crisp. 

Once again, the Rangers bullpen came through for their club while the Athletics bullpen did not.  The Rangers got four scoreless innings out of their relievers.  Oakland’s Ryan Cook and Fernando Abad continued their strong play thus far in 2014, pitching scoreless 7th and 8th innings.  Bob Melvin decided to go to Luke Gregerson to close out the game and that decision didn’t lead to the desired results as Gregerson blew his third save opportunity of the season.  The Rangers scored twice in the top of the 9th to take the lead and the game from the A’s. 

Game 3 final score: Rangers 3, Athletics 0

Rangers SP Martin Perez continued his dominant streak on the mound, pitching a complete game shutout on Wednesday afternoon to close out the sweep against the A’s.  Perez now has a 26 inning scoreless stretch on the mound for the Rangers. 

The A’s got a solid start from Sonny Gray, going 7 innings while striking out 8, walking 4 and giving up 3 ER’s.  Unfortunately for the A’s, their offense couldn’t breakthrough.  The team managed 3 hits and 2 BB’s in the nine inning gem from Perez, who got 17 groundouts against the A’s lineup. 

The Athletics now go one the road for a four game series in Houston starting tomorrow, followed by three game series in Texas and Boston.  The biggest concern for Bob Melvin and Curt Young has to be the A’s bullpen.  While overall numbers are relatively solid throughout most of the bullpen, whoever winds up being asked to close games in the 8th and 9th innings seems to struggle. 

Melvin and Young may need to reconsider their “closer by committee” approach and provide a little more clarity and defined roles.  The team could go with Dan Otero, Jim Johnson, or Sean Doolittle to close out save opportunities (not coincidentally, that is the order of this writer’s preference on who gets the nod).  Whoever it is, the A’s are likely happy to be facing the Astros again, as they swept their opponent this past weekend and will look to right the ship.  

VAVEL Logo
About the author
John Flesta
Displaced Oakland A's, Seattle Seahawks, and Minnesota Timberwolves fan in New Jersey.